The perks of hard work

 

Growing up, I knew just one person who worked on a farm. My grandmother lived on a farm as a girl, and I'd listen to strange and foreign stories from her about walking among chickens and petting pigs.

Today, living where I live, I know several people who grew up on a farm or live on a farm. Even a couple of my co-workers split their duties between the newspaper and the farm. It's no big deal to them, tackling all of that, because farmers know the value of hard work. It's how they survive.

I didn't grow up on a farm, but I was raised to work hard. There were chores and allowances and all that stuff. But dedication came naturally to me. I worked hard in school ... most of the time. And I was taught that it would pay off. Most of the time it did.

And so it is with the blog. I work hard on the blog and have for quite awhile. It's not "work" work, but it takes effort to come up with topics that involve thought and to post most days of the week. And, I've found that, like other things in life, the more you put in, the more you get.

There have been a lot of perks. And as amazed as I've been by what's come my way and how "lucky" I feel, I know that if I half-assed things here, I wouldn't be blessed with what I've received.

I get a lot of "thanks for blogging" packages. It's a perk for hard work. I received another one a couple of weeks ago. This one was from Ben, a reader and collector. He's a Brewers fan, which probably explains why he was willing to send me so many Dodgers, considering how rudely my team has treated Milwaukee in the postseason recently.

 

 

Ben went the extra mile to look through my want lists, which explains why so much of what he sent were inserts and parallels. There is so much of that stuff with modern cards and I've long since given up on trying to get it all, but it feels good to receive them.

 

Yup. SO MANY inserts and parallels.

Notice how many Bellingers are in that grouping. I'm pretty sure that I will have more Bellinger cards than almost any other player in a year or two at the current rate. Some of the cards here are from that ridiculous 30-card store-exclusive insert set from three years ago. I'm a long way from completing it (and there are parallels, too), but Topps figured it had been long enough that it could issue ANOTHER 30-card store-exclusive insert set of Bellinger this year.

Nothing about that makes sense.

 

A bunch of gold-parallel needs. I just read about another blogger, I think it was Matt of Diamond Jesters, working on landing the gold parallels of his team. I should do that some day, especially for the years when Topps actually had borders.

 

"Old-school" parallel action from 1992 Leaf.

Parallels and inserts (and buybacks) of current Dodger pitchers. I think that David Price is even in an actual Dodger uniform in that '85 card. Maybe? I don't know. The photoshoppers have me so confused.

I saw evidence of Price pitching for the Dodgers yesterday for the first time. So I guess he's really with the team now.

 

A couple modern Jackie inserts. I pulled the Chrome version of the By the Numbers Robinson card and I have to admit it's sharp. It actually gave me an idea for a future post.

Ben also graciously packaged up some Koufax inserts for me. Man, seeing Koufax on a die-cut insert is bizarre.

 

This pretty much was the only Dodger base card in the entire package. That tells you something about where I'm at in this team-collecting journey. It's also much more appreciated than the inserts and parallels. Funny how that works, right? We're supposed to value the inserts more.

 

 

 

 This relic forces a Marlins-themed jersey swatch into my collection. Wee.

The only Kershaw card in the package is one of those manu-"patch" things. But it's one of the sharper versions in my collection and I should go through what I've got and show off the 10 best of these things.

 

There were even some autographs thrown in. I've long liked the look of the 2007 Topps autographs.

So, that is the majority of the Dodger content that Ben sent my way, but it's not all the cards from the box.

That's a mess of 2005 Topps from my want lists (sorry about the late-night blurry photo). It's been fun going through these cards. Sets from the mid-aughts are full of players that are barely represented in my collection.

 

Some of the highlights. I still like this set a lot.

 

I few other interesting cards. I think that Expos item may be the final Montreal team card.

 

This part was pretty exciting. Nobody looks at my 2006 Topps want list. It's been a long time since I've landed an insert from that year.

 

Look! The ridiculous Mantle home run cards! I still need a handful of these to finish it off. And then I don't know what I'll do. Show it as proof that I'm not all there, I guess.

 

These are from the Walmart insert set from '06. This is how long Topps has been putting cards on old designs and pretending it's a new insert. Back then it was at least a little bit of a novelty.

This set is fairly large and I still need a bunch.

 

Finally, the best card for last.

This tells you where I am in collecting. I would've been just as happy if Ben sent only this card. It's a need for my 1975 Topps buyback quest. I'm now up to 405 total cards. Pressing on!

Yeah, a wild buyback quest like that is a bit difficult. But when I find something I want to do, I know it's going to take hard work to get it done.

Like this blog. I ain't no farmer but I know what it takes. 

Thanks for noticing.